Mass Effect: Soze Inc
by KaiserSoze
Summary: One man in tinted sunglasses with a mysterious past, One mission to stop the Reapers. Can he help Commander Shepard without his past coming back to haunt him? OC/Tali
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**Looks can Deceive**

"Excuse me Commander?"

"Yes, Miranda?"

"You might want to read this."

Commander Jane Alice Shepard sighed in annoyance. She really did not like this Cerberus cheerleader, enough so that she had borrowed that phrase from Jack. "Okay, but it better be pretty damn important." she said coming out of her quarters. Once she made it down the elevator and walked to Miranda's quarters Miranda shut the door behind her.

"I have no idea why the Illusive Man would hide this file, but I found it hidden in his desk." she started. Shepard noticed that for the first time since meeting the lady Miranda seemed unsure. Miranda walked back to her desk and pulled out a dossier, and then gave it to Shepard. "This dossier is of a man named Jonathon K. Soze," Miranda stated. "The founder of Soze Inc.?" Shepard asked puzzled. Miranda nodded and said, "the very same."

"Hmmmm this just got interesting," Shepard pondered why the Illusive Man would have this dossier and also why he would hide it. _It just didn't make any sense, Miranda is his right hand. Of course he would tell her everything. Unless of course this is a man Cerberus does not want around. _In which case Jane would be interested in meeting such a man.

That is all it took for the Commander to set coordinates to Earth and find out exactly who this Jonathon Soze was. "Hey Commander!" said the always cheerful yeoman Kelly, "I don't have any messages for you right now." "That's okay Kelly, just tell me what you thought of the last mission," Jane responded. "Well, I am glad we got everything settled between Mr. Krios and his son." "also I would like to point out how handsome Kolyat is," Kelly said with a subtle blush.

Jane raised her eyebrows at this and looked questioningly at her yeoman. "Do you want me to get his extranet address for you?" Kelly's blush went from subtle to bright red as she stammered her denial. Jane laughed and started walking back to the captains cabin with a smirk on her face. As she made it into the elevator her smirk faded away, she then looked at the file in her hand. _Well, I better read up on this Mr. Soze_, she thought with a sigh. Stepping out of the elevator into her cabin she immediately walked to her terminal and slumped down into her chair.

After two hours of reading the file and checking the extranet about Soze she eventually gave up. She knew quite a bit about him by this point, such as that he was Irish and extremely successful, and that he graduated from law school at the age of twelve, started Soze Inc. when he was 19 and became a billionaire by the time he was twenty. Currently he lives in New York City and is 24 years old.

_Impressive_, Jane thought to herself, _very impressive. _That was what she read on the extranet, however what she read in the dossier was way more secretive. Soze was a business man who according to these files was also a very dangerous man. Nothing showed up on a crime check, but in the dossier his actions took up five pages front to back. None of those crimes could be proven however, and so he never spent a day in jail. There was no father on the record, or a mother for that matter he grew up in Belfast with his Irish nanny. He (according to reports) was against humanity first, and had a very outspoken hatred of Cerberus and Exogeni. Jane herself found herself nodding in approval of his almost radical speeches.

**Two Days Later**

They had finally made it to the docking station in New York City. Shepard felt odd coming through the city, mostly because as a species humans look towards the statue of liberty which is still standing as a symbol of hope. Yet, looking down on the streets hope seemed lost. Homeless people everywhere, drug dealers, prostitutes the works. And then possibly worse, was the overly rich. The privileged few who looked down on the dirt and grime and thought themselves better. Jane was from New York, she fought through the dirt, the gangs and drugs.

She made a code for herself and she has always followed it no matter what. But just looking at the snobs who wouldn't give money away even if it was on fire made her want to go on a shooting spree. "Easy Commander," said Garrus, who could always tell what she was thinking. "Don't worry about these assholes, lets just find Soze and get the hell out." Shepard nodded in agreement, "Okay, if I was a billionaire in New York where would I be?" she mused.

Garrus, her and Miranda were searching the whole city for him and still didn't have a clue. Shepard got a comlink call from Thane, "Hey Thane, Whats the problem?" "No problem commander," he responded in his deep voice. "Just found out from one of my contacts that Soze is going to be assassinated as his apartment in three hours." "WOAH, WOAH,WOAH" Shepard yelled. "What the hell do you mean 'Assassinated' Thane?" "I believe that the word speaks for itself Shepard," Thane countered. "If you want this Soze character on our squad you better make it to the apartments in upper Manhattan by 6." Right then Thane cut off. "smart-ass," Shepard muttered. The relationship between her and the stoic Drell assassin was odd to be honest, but she loved him and he loved her. "Commander, we absolutely need to get moving if we are to make it to Soze," said Miranda.

After catching a Rapid Cab to the apartments there was nothing that Shepard, Garrus and Miranda could do except wait. Frankly, this bored the shit out of Shepard. She was used to running and gunning, shooting Geth, and more recently, reuniting lost families that hated each other. _This waiting bullcrap had to go after this mission_, she thought annoyed. "Shepard, I see movement" Garrus exclaimed quietly.

"Finally, this is go-time squad," Shepard said excitedly. They looked to the left and they looked to their left and saw the back of an extremely expensive suit and some amazing hair above the neck. "I think that's him," Garrus stated. Shepard sneaked about 30 feet behind Soze to not appear suspicious. Garrus decided to get into the nearest closed shop and scope out through the window. Miranda followed Shepard but stayed back about 10 feet behind Shepard. This went on for about 3 blocks when Soze (with his back still turned to Shepard) started climbing up the steps. Suddenly a bald human pushed her to the ground and ran up the steps. "Shit, shit." Shepard exclaimed. "That was the hitman" Shepard tried to follow him but there was too many people blocking the way. By this time Soze was on the third floor and opened the door to his apartment and walked in.

Before the door even closed the hitman walked through with a Striker III pistol and shut the door. Shepard pushed past all of the people on the second floor with Miranda right behind her. They finally made it to the third floor, "Should we kick down the door?" Miranda asked. In response, Commander used her biotics to kick the door with enough force to go flying into the apartment. She pulled out her shotgun and jumped into the room. There she was greeted by a bald body facedown and Soze sitting on the couch next to the door with a lit cigarette in one hand and a smoking mini-bodyguard pistol in the other. He looked square into Shepard's eyes, pulled off his sunglasses and said, "Ah, Shepard, Your late."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Taking Care of Business**

"Ah, Shepard you're late,"

Jane looked so flabbergasted that Soze gave her a small smirk and said, "I bet you are confused that I know who you are and that you would be here correct?" Jane looked befuddled for only a half second more before switching to a to-die-for poker face. "I am guessing that you are Jonathon K. Soze?" she responded already knowing the answer. Soze stared at her with the brightest of blue eyes that she has ever seen and after a single moment of tenseness started laughing. "I like you Shepard, I can already tell that being your teammate will be rewarding."

Soze then went to his kitchen and brought out a small crystal glass, "Would either of you like a drink?" he asked. "I have Brandy, Batarian Ale, human Scotch and Serrice." Shepard interrupted him saying, "No, no we have to leave because you know, we are a bit busy stopping the reapers." Soze just smiled at her (or smirked, which is what Miranda saw it as) and said, "I still have some important nonsense to take care of first: type out a business form, pack my stuff, fake my death-" "Wait, what?" Shepard interjected again, "Why the hell do you need to fake your death?" Before Soze could even say anything Miranda gave a snort, "Obviously, he is an important business head who is always in the spotlight. He can't just disappear, there would be people searching the whole galaxy for him!"

Soze looked at her approvingly, "Yes, that is correct. It's necessary and if I don't survive this adventure it is already taken care of." "But what if you live?" Shepard asked curiously. "Well, then I go back to my desk and send a memo out saying that the ship I was on crashed, but I survived. Simple and efficient." Soze looked at his watch, yawned and told Shepard, "I'm very sorry but I have much to do. I will be at the Normandy at 1800" as he started to walk them to the door Shepard grabbed his arm and said, "One thing I need to know, how exactly did you know who I was and the whole situation?" Soze looked at her for a few seconds before giving her yet another smile and answered, "I believe we have a mutual friend by the name of Liara T'soni?"

"Wow, sounds like a fuckin' head trip." Jack so eloquently said after Shepard got back and told her what happened. Jane and Jacks' relationship was very unexpected. Somehow the psycho that Jack was became Jane's best friend. _Maybe its because Jack is the most honest person I've ever met,_ Jane mused. No matter how it happened now the two women were constantly down in Jack's hidey hole drinking bottles stolen out of Kasumi's room. (even though chances are Kasumi knows they stole them.) Jane knew that Jack would always give her own opinion about her decisions and not just go with whatever Jane said. "Yeah, it was pretty weird to be back on Earth," Jane said. Jack knew Jane's history and truly felt for her. That was another reason why the two of them were such good friends, they understood the pain the other one went through. Jack tried to change the subject, "So how bout that Soze guy huh? Is he bangable?"

"Jesus Jack!" Jane responded laughing uncontrollably, "He's a teammate, and why don't you just see for yourself? He will be here in about twenty minutes." Jack sauntered off with a drunk smile that was so rare to see, "Maybe I will, What does he look like?" Jane thought for a second and remembered that Soze did look familiar. _Those eyes for instance, those were not normal looking eyes, and that hair, even his mannerisms._ Jane felt something was off but Jack was still waiting. "Oh, blue eyes, dark hair, ten thousand credit suit, and a cigarette that apparently never leaves his hand," Jane said. Jack sat back down, "That's disappointing, I was hoping he was like the rest of us," Jack began, "you know, dirty, poor and not having come from money." Jane looked at her thoughtfully while saying, "According to my file he grew up on the streets of Dublin, fighting for scraps for him and his 80 year old nanny." "Well either way I'm probably going to be edgy around him," Jack stated, "you know I don't get along with suits."

**One Hour Earlier**

Jonathon Soze stepped out of his apartment and lit yet another cigarette. Sinead always told him that he was going to get cancer and die. _I miss that old lady_, he thought, m_aybe ill go visit her back in Ireland and then we would go to the Cliffs of Dover one last time. _Soze walked down the steps while absentmindedly rubbing the lenses of his sunglasses with a piece of cloth. _That woman at the age of ninety-four was still strong-willed enough to not be in a nursing home, and still be doing labor on their farm. _He was glad that Sinead was enjoying her life on the farm that he bought her, when it came to anything she came first.

Soze knew that she wasn't happy with him leaving Ireland, but he had to. Nothing in this world would have kept him there, Sure Ireland is pretty and all, but he had seen to many murders, muggings and other assorted violent crimes covered up by the paddies who were in the pocket of evil men. _I could always have been a vigilante_, he thought, _I am smart enough to get away with it_. Even though he knew that to clear up evil and corruption in the long haul, you had to have true power. Power to end anti-alien businesses, the power to actually help. That kind of power was what Soze wanted to have when he stepped off of that ship into New York.

Soze looked around and cursed himself, _Stupid stupid I have to be at the Normandy in twenty minutes and I am on the other side of Little Italy_. As Soze walked he saw a human owner of an Italian restaurant yell at a cowering young Quarian female. "Why do you steal my pizza huh? Why?" The young woman sounded like she was in tears when she answered, "You had thrown it in the dumpster, I didn't think you wanted it!"

The man swung his hand back as if to strike her, but his wrist was now in a vice of a grip by Soze. The man tried to swing around, but Soze kept him facing away from him and now the man could feel the sharp point of a blade at the small of his back.

"6 Inch serrated knife filled with Batarian poison, positioned at your back level with your kidneys. One stab that goes through more than 2 centimeters estimated time of death: 4 minutes. One stab that goes through less than 2 centimeters estimated time of death: 6 minutes. Do you want to risk it?" Soze said in the coldest voice imaginable.

"nuhnuhnuh noooo," the man mumbled shaking. "Good, I see you have a brain, now get out of here and pretend this never happened," Soze ordered. The man walked away and Soze could see that the man had urinated on himself. Soze turned to the Quarian girl and said gently, "Are you okay miss?" The Quarian got up nervously and said, "yes I'm fine, you didn't need to do that." Soze smiled at her and responded, "No? Well, then I did it because I wanted to. Does that sound fair? Whats your name miss?"

The Quarian said, "my name is Decia D'vara nar Uguia." Soze grabbed her hand and murmured, "It is very nice to meet you, my name is Jon Soze and if I may ask a favor?" "Anything!" Decia responded eagerly. "Well, I have an apartment on the other side of the city and I need someone to watch it while I am gone, it is fully equipped with Dextro-DNA food and any comforts you can possibly imagine. If you have any problems just send me an extranet message and ill help you."

Decia was completely speechless and it seemed that her brain was not functioning right, because if it was this man who had just saved her was also giving her an apartment in the biggest human city. "Is there any work to be done?" she asked. "No, no, no," he said smiling, "just some fish and a television that needs someone to watch it."

"So, basically you are giving me your apartment?" Decia asked refusing to even hope he was telling the truth. But Soze just laughed and told her with his cigarette in his pocket, "You saw right through me, here's the address and my extranet account, oh wait I forgot something." he dug into his pocket and dropped something into her hand and walked away. When Decia looked into her hand she smiled because he had just given her more money then she had ever seen in her life. And for once she felt hope.


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you everyone who's been reviewing! Each review gives me confidence to continue writing, (Special thanks goes to HBHound and Moskgrorov) enjoy this next chapter :) Sorry for the delay**

**Chapter 3:**

**On the Normandy**

"Welcome to the Normandy."

Soze looked around for the source of the noise before settling his eyes on EDI. _Cerberus working with AI, and non-human crew-mates?_ He mused, _how unlike the Illusive Man indeed. _He glanced at the crew members Shepard had assembled in front of him; A Salarian doctor named Mordin, a dark skinned biotic named Jacob, The white skinned woman he had previously met Miranda, A Turian named Garrus, and lastly, A drell named Thane. Soze surveyed the team and looked at Shepard questioningly, Shepard met his eyes and understanding what he was asking answered, "No, this is not all of the crew. Jack, Grunt and Zaeed are still on the Engineering floor and Samara and Kasumi are on the Crew's Quarters floor."

Soze nodded approvingly, "Hmmm, pretty much a small army. Very unlike the Illusive man to allow non-humans aboard a Cerberus vessel." Shepard shook her head and said, "Well, mainly because this is not a Cerberus vessel, this is MY vessel therefore I decide who's allowed on." Soze started strolling around the CIC mumbling to himself. Jacob stared at him for a few seconds before curiosity overwhelmed him, "Mr. Soze?" he asked, "What are you doing?"

Soze stopped and turned around. "Oh sorry, sometimes I get distracted, what were you saying?" Shepard paused for a second before answering uncertainly, "Nothing, we have a bunk set up for you in the AI core." Soze looked back approvingly, "So, what do we do first?"

**One Hour Later**

Soze set down one of his bags onto the cot, and then unpacked all three of them. In the first one he had: One knife with a six inch blade filled with Batarian poison, a Kessler III pistol, a Tempest submachine gun and his coup de grace; a Katana he had procured from a would-be assassin in Japan. He gripped the handle of the sword and unsheathed it, for some reason he was extremely attached to this sword and took it everywhere with him.

He sighed and put the sword back in its sheath then he set it aside onto his cot. He opened up his second bag (which was filled with his clothing) and started hanging up his different sets of clothes: a couple black tank tops, one pair of black sweats, two pairs of gray sweats, one black and red business suit, one white and gray business suit, two pairs of black cargo pants, a pair of black combat boots (with a holster for his knife), and a small shield generator that he would tie to his arm.

He looked over at his third bag but instead of opening it, he tucked it under his cot. He heard a beeping indicating that he had received a message on his terminal, he turned around and read it with a slight frown. Soze, Please be down in the cargo hold in five. P.S. Wear workout clothes...and gloves. From, Jane Alice Shepard.

**Meanwhile**

Shepard sat in her quarters thinking about their new teammate. _I should probably test his capabilities,_ she thought to herself, _to make sure he's combat material. _She had the perfect test for him, true it wasn't the friendliest test, but she had to know.

She typed out a message to him and sent it. She then stood up and walked to the elevator, when she reached it she typed in the passcode to go to the cargo hold. _Let's see what he brings to the table,_ she thought with a smirk. When she reached it she met eyes with Thane and Garrus who were practicing hand to hand and nodded to them. She saw Jacob doing pull ups so she walked over to him, "Hey Jacob, got a second?" she asked.

Jacob leaped off the bar and nodded, "Sure Commander what is it?" Shepard pulled him aside and said, "Jacob, I need to test our new teammate's hand to hand skill, and since you are specially trained I want you to spar with him." Jacob thought about it and smiled, _There's no way he can beat me_, "Okay Commander I'll do it." Shepard nodded in approval, "Okay he should be here right abou-" Just then the doors opened and Soze walked out confidently.

Shepard stared at him for a while solely because he looked so different. Instead of his black suit he had black sweat pants and a tank top, instead of his shiny shoes he had faded black sneakers, and he had his hair tied into a small ponytail at the back of his head. What surprised her the most however, was the multiple tattoos he had. She saw a dragon tattoo wrapped around his left arm and what from where she was standing looked like an assortment of words on his right forearm. After getting over the initial shock of seeing him so differently Shepard knew Jacob was the perfect fight for him.

Soze was easily six one or two while Jacob was five foot ten, Soze was built longer and leaner so it was guaranteed he would be fast while Jacob had him in weight and was built with an abundance of solid muscle. She knew that Jacob was a skilled boxer and grappler so she was curious how Soze would fight. While she was mentally stacking them together everybody else was circling the fighters, Garrus and Thane walked over and Thane took Shepard's hand into his. Kelly, Kasumi and Gabby were ogling the fighters, Jack was sitting in the back listening to Grunt and Zaeed argue about the proper way to kill a Thresher Maw, Mordin was weighing the two fighters in, Miranda was calculating how inefficient this whole system was, Ken was thinking of ways to impress Gabby and Samara was watching the fighters as well.

"Jonathon Soze: 194 pounds 8 oz," Mordin said, "Jacob Taylor: 234 pounds 2 oz." Ken yelled out, "I got fifty creds on Jacob!" Jack pondered that and yelled back, "You're on!" pretty soon the whole crew was betting money on this fight. Kasumi bet 200 on Jacob, Zaeed had 250 on Soze, Kelly matched that one on Jacob, Gabby bet 150 on Soze and Garrus bet 300 on Soze. "Enough", Shepard yelled, "Now lets see this match!" Mordin told the two fighters, "I want a clean fight, no hitting below the belt, tap the ground three times to surrender, 1,2,3 GO!"

The two fighters circled each other mentally calculating the others ability. Jacob went in first with a left jab, but Soze blocked it easily sensing the bait. Jacob ducked in trying to get a shot to Soze's chest, but then Soze kicked his kneecap with his heel which caused Jacob to jump back. _Hmm overconfident,_ Soze mused, _I can work with that._

Two hours into the brutal fight and the whole crowd was holding its breath. Both Jacob and Jon were bloody, tired and bruised up, but they refused to give up. Jacob was swaying a bit trying to get his head clear while Soze was still standing upright amazingly, but he looked ready to fall. "Are you sure you want to continue?" asked Mordin. Soze and Jacob nodded in unison, and both got into their fighting stances. Jacob darted forward and connected with a strong right hook that caused Soze to fall to the ground. Jacob did not let this opportunity go to waste and he pounced onto him throwing punch after punch to the face and upperbody of Soze. Soze put his forearms up to block his face, but Jacob just hammered away at his abdomen.

Suddenly, Soze jabbed upwards with an elbow shot straight to Jacob's jaw and Jacob put one of his arms up unconsciously, which Soze then grabbed, thrusted his legs up and got Jacob into a revised armbar ferociously. Jacob tried to fight out of it for a few seconds then tapped out. The whole crowd was silent, shocked at the surprise ending of the fight, then after a second all started cheering. Soze stood up shakily and helped up Jacob while Mordin lifted up his hand in victory. Soze proceeded to walk out to the elevator and with the support of Garrus and Thane made it to his cot where he then fell asleep cold.


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks everyone who's actually reviewing :) y'all are the best. Just so your aware i'm going to keep the next chapter hostage until I receive 12 reviews :) Does that sound too unreasonable? I realize now that I may lose some fans because of this chapter but please hang in there.**

**Chapter four**

**Rivalry**

Shepard paced back and forth in her quarters wondering if she should go see if Soze was alright. _He did kind of get beaten the hell up_, she thought, _Jacob's still in the Med-Bay_. She tried to quell her feelings of guilt for getting two of her teammates hurt just to push Soze. _Bullshit, straight bullshit_, she thought again angrily, _There was absolutely no way around it, I had to test him_. She decided that she would visit him in thirty minutes just to make sure he wasn't dead. She hated thinking like that, but it was entirely possible. Jacob had sustained multiple broken bones from their fight and Soze didn't even get to the Med-Bay.

**Meanwhile, In the Mess Hall**

Garrus and one of the crewmen were currently in an intense arm-wrestling match. (True, neither wanted to win because Grunt called winner) Zaeed was telling a war story to an enthusiastic Kelly and Kasumi was thinking of how to get Gabby and Ken together. She saw how they acted together and she thought she had the perfect plan. _They will never expect this_, she thought with a mischievous smile, _Now just need to find a way to kickstart this. _

Ever since Pragia Jack had been a lot friendlier with the crew. Except for the obvious exception Miranda of course, Jack thought that it was mainly because Miranda acted so high and mighty with her accent and her perfectly made genetics. At least she wasn't the only one who hated Miranda; Shepard distrusted Miranda immensely. _Well actually she distrusted anybody working with Cerberus_, Jack amended, _And Miranda and Jacob just happened to work for Cerberus_.

Thane was praying in Life Support when Samara walked in, "Ah, Samara do you need something?" Thane asked. Samara walked over to him and answered, "I was wondering if you would care to join me in meditation? Nobody else on this ship do and I get lonely." Thane thought about this for a few minutes, for some reason warning bells were going off in his head but he agreed to meditate with the asari. He felt a twinge of guilt for not asking his siha first but he didn't see the problem with meditating with Samara.

Jacob stood up slowly groaning in pain when he felt his broken ribs. "Mr. Taylor I recommend taking it very slowly," came the stern voice of the ship's medic Dr. Chakwas. "Don't worry Doc I have this handled," said the always cocky Jacob, "I will just get back to weapon repairing now." Chakwas pursed her lips but decided to allow it. As Jacob walked to the elevator to get back to the CIC he almost bumped into Shepard, but thankfully for Jacob she dodged him. "Hey Commander," he nodded to her. "Oh hey Jacob, How are you feeling?" she asked him with no small amount of concern. He just laughed but then he stopped to cough, "Don't worry Commander, he didn't hurt me that bad," he lied.

Shepard then said goodbye to him and wished him the best of luck, once he was out of view she shook her head and chuckled at his foolishness. She then returned her mind to the business on hand; checking up on Soze. She walked into the Med-Bay and turned to Chakwas and asked, "Did you see Jon? Is he okay?" Chakwas sighed in exasperation before answering, "No, he wont even let me in the AI Core, he locked me out!" Shepard paused and with an angry expression on her face walked over to the door of the AI Core and screamed, "WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? HUH? I DON'T ALLOW LOCKED DOORS ON MY SHIP! OPEN UP THIS INSTANT!" After a few seconds the door slid up and there stood Soze wearing his black and red business suit, his sunglasses and even had his hair combed correctly. He looked her dead in the eye and said, "A word, Commander?"

` She stepped inside the AI Core/Soze's quarters and looked around. Inside she saw many different things that she didn't really expect such as: the Katana currently hung up above his bed, several real books on his desk, a few guns and an older looking extranet terminal. He started pacing and lit up a cigarette while doing so, "So Ms. Shepard what the bloody hell do you want?" She was surprised at his non-characteristic harsh tone, granted she did yell at him first, but still it wasn't like him to do that. Shepard cleared her throat before answering, "Well, firstly I came to check up on yo-" he interrupted her by snorting derisively, "As I was saying," she continued, "I came up here to check up on you, and then I hear that you locked out the Medic? I don't allow locking of doors on MY ship."

He turned to her and responded coldly, "Considering you have a bloody thief, a mercenary, two Cerberus operatives, a goddamn Krogan and an assassin I figured you'd be understanding of why I would want to have my gear protected." She just gaped at him for a moment before collecting herself and angrily responding, "I trust all of my crewmates and they would never do that!" He just smirked and said, "Sure they won't, because we both know that there is absolutely no reason that Miranda would want to find out more information about someone that even Cerberus can't figure out." She actually had to agree with him on this, but she still decided to make him an offer, "How about this, I make sure Miranda stays out of here and you keep the the door unlocked, Deal?" Soze gave this some thought and then nodded, "Sounds reasonable," and then they shook hands.

_Holy hell what was his problem?_ Shepard thought as she walked out of the Med-Bay. Back inside the the AI Core, _What the hell is my problem? _Jon thought,_ Jesus fuckin' Christ_. He walked over to his desk and took out a pill bottle and popped off the top. After taking two of his pills he instantly relaxed, he crossed over to his bed and proceeded to get into a meditating position. He realized now that the information he had just received was stressing him out more then he needed to be. He had to relax and take it slow, then tomorrow he'd apologize to Shepard for being such an ass.

Back in the Mess Hall everyone was eating except for (obviously) Soze and Joker. Thane was hip to hip with Shepard but he could feel Samara's eyes on him, making him feel extremely uncomfortable. Shepard was oblivious to Samara as she was laughing and telling stories about the days of the original Normandy to the rest of the amused crew members. "Haha, I remember when we were in the Mako and my driving turned our tough turian friend into a little girl!" Garrus grumbled, "You all should be lucky you didn't have to go in that. It was a death machine!" The rest of the crew got a huge laugh out of that.

Up in the cockpit Joker was arguing with EDI, "Mr. Moreau, tampering with my system is against protocol and I will have to contact Shepard," EDI stated. "Yeah yeah, go tattle to mommy," Joker muttered. "I do not understand your last sentence, are you making a joke?" came the reply. Joker just nodded and then EDI said, "That is funny." Joker laughed and shook his head.

After dinner Kelly went back to her terminal and after a quick check to make sure nobody was around opened up _Fornax Online _and began browsing the categories, stopping when she got to the Drell section. She opened up the first video after making sure the volume was turned off, three minutes into the video her jaw was dropped and she didn't notice when Thane walked up behind her, curious to see what she was doing. When he got close enough to see what was on her screen he chuckled, making Kelly jump and frantically attempt to exit the browser, but only succeeded in turning the sound on making all of the crew members in the CIC to turn and stare at her. After she turned off the sound and exited the browser she turned towards the laughing Drell with her face roughly the same color as her hair.

"I apologize ms. Chambers, for scaring you of course," Thane said in his deep voice. Kelly suddenly became extremely self conscious when he apologized, it was mainly to do with Kelly's schoolgirl crush on Thane. "Nuuuuhhhhh No prrrobbleem Thaaane," Kelly managed to stammer out. Thane walked back to the elevator extremely amused by the poor girl's embarrassment. _If she has a fetish for Drell, maybe I can send Kolyat a message telling him about this girl_, he mused, _it'd probably make Kolyat forgive me faster and Kelly can satisfy her major crush on Drell_. He felt as if this was the perfect plan.

Kelly tried to calm her fast beating heart, _breathe in, breath out_, she thought. She thought that maybe it wasn't exactly Thane that she had a crush on, it was more like she was attracted to the whole race. Similar to the way all men are attracted to Asari, she was attracted to Drell. She probably just needed to find a Drell and get laid, but there weren't many of them left. _Maybe Kolyat_, she thought but just as quickly dismissed the idea, sure they were similar in age and they could easily contact (she could just go to the Citadel on her shore leave,) AND nobody had to find out.

Thane couldn't shake the feeling that he was being followed and after looking around the elevator he seemingly put his hand on nothing, but then Kasumi appeared. "Dammit Thane, how did you know I was in here?" Thane just smiled and said mysteriously, "The art of being invisible does not mean that you are not visible." Kasumi just grimanced, "Whatever Krios, anyway not really why I'm here, I have been reading Kelly's emails and she has been obsessing about your son Kolyat." Thane again just smiled at her, "I already set wheels in motion, I have this handled."


	5. Chapter 5

**Wow my last chapter got reviews faster then I expected, so how about we make it more challenging? 23 reviews is what I ask for, you people deliver. Sound fair? :) Archangeluca; you will just have to wait and see ;) Thanks, as always, to HBHound. Thanks new reviewers! And everyone make sure you read and review Stilphyell's: Raising Raven story its pretty damn amazing, anyway enjoy this next little bit of my imagination. P.S the song he hums is Blood of Cu Chulainn by Jeff Danna (From the Boondock Saints soundtrack) (I LOVE THAT SONG :D)**

**Chapter 5:**

**Interlude: Echo**

_Oh, all around the World,  
>there's an echo<br>as he takes a bow  
>And they all know all the girls, the boys<br>they chase the noise  
>through the highs and through the lows<br>they will follow the echo, echo, echo, echo  
>they will follow the echo, echo, echo, echo<em>  
><strong>Echo by Eminem feat Royce Da 5'9''<strong>

_The twelve year old Jon looked around at the other young, hungry boys in the barn. They had come here in the dead of night wearing the darkest clothes they owned to perform a raid on the other gang's barn, which had more food and supplies then their own shabby one. Brian looked over at him and asked politely, "The fuck are you doin'? Yo ready or nau'?" Jon nodded a bit shakily, not taking offense to the crude way in which Brian had spoken to him, "Right, doa head count first, then a weapons check." Brian saluted him, "Aye Captain, I'll ready the troops."_

_ Jon looked out of the window to the moon and tried to remain practical, they were on the most dangerous mission of their gang's life. Their mission was to raid the barn in secrecy, and bring their loot back to this barn where the Boss would reward them, this was dangerous because the rival gang were more in number, and in wealth. Brian returned to him, "Sir, eight of the fuckers showed up, one of them had received wor' from the others that they weren't coming, sometin' about guarding a different base." _

_ Jon nodded saying, "Aye, three other bases, guess we'll hafta work wit' wha' we have." There were three captains in the whole gang and they all went with code names; his was Faelan meaning "Little Wolf." This was accurate for him because at the age of twelve he was by far the youngest captain. The other two captians (Fiachna; meaning little raven, and Maichin; meaning monk) were sixteen and eighteen respectivly. The whole mission was on Jon's shoulders as he was the captain of this squad. He liked having the name "Little Wolf" for many reasons, one of these was because he thought like a wolf. He had very good leadership skills and once he saw a target he took it out._

Soze woke up in his cot on the Normandy sweating and shaking. He stood up still shaking and walked over to his desk where he left his pills, and swallowed two of them. Soze tried to fall back asleep but he still felt jittery so he got up, walked to the Mess Hall and started making some coffee. The memories of his, growing up in Ireland were mostly of pain and this one was no different. Soze was in deep contemplation when a voice from behind him spoke up and startled him, "A bit early for some coffee, isn't it?"

Soze turned around and faced Shepard, "For an Irishman, there is never 'too early' for coffee, as long as it is an Irish coffee," he responded teasing her. Shepard looked confused for a second before asking him, "At the risk of sounding completely stupid, what exactly is an Irish coffee?" He just chuckled at her and wagged his finger, "How about this? I make you one and you tell me if you like it." Shepard thought through this and decided "Why the hell not?"

He told her to close her eyes while he made it humming an old favorite Irish song of his. Shepard's brow was furrowed as she somewhat recognized the tune he was humming. She was noticing him differently now that he didn't have that cold expression on his face and that he was wearing sweats and a tshirt. She had also never seen this side to him either, sure she'd seen the angry side and the businesslike and even the polite sides, but not the teasing nice-guy side.

Soze stopped humming and placed a coffee mug in front of her while telling her she could open her eyes. She picked up the mug and took a cautious sip, then the alcohol got her and she started coughing, "What the hell, man? You Irish people put _whiskey _inyour coffee?" Soze laughed at her and said, "Why do you think it's called _Irish_ coffee?" She had to agree with him on that, then she sort of checked him out. _Hmmmm, no apparent damage from the fight,_ she mused, _and not nearly as angry as earlier._

"How are you feeling?" Shepard inquired Soze, "Your fight with Jacob got to be a bit brutal, no?" Soze just laughed liltingly, "Two things an Irishman knows how to do: drink heavily, and fight like he has drunk heavily!" Shepard also laughed at that before settling her eyes on the tattoo of the dragon on his arm. It was somewhat mean-looking with ruby-red eyes but the body was black and gold. "How many tattoos do you have?" Shepard asked him curious. Soze paused for a brief moment before answering, "Three; the dragon, a rosary around my neck and this," he turned around and showed her the strange markings on his arm, "It's Arabic for 'Peace' and 'Justice' two concepts that are most appealing to me."

She studied them thoughtfully, "What's with the dragon then?" she asked. Soze looked embarrassed for a few moments and Shepard was about to retract her question before he answered, "I suppose it began with a nickname. When I first moved from Ireland I worked some, let's just say 'not strictly legal' jobs. I then "relocated" to the Citadel where I started work for a Turian bartender/hitman/ all around bad guy. Well, eventually it was known that if you fucked with this particular Turian, then his pet seven headed dragon would get you. As somewhat of a calling card, every time they found my work there would be a drawing of a dragon."

Shepard stared at this man with new eyes, horrified at what atrocities that Soze must have commited during his lifetime, but she did have one question that would clear this all up, "So, were they all bad guys?" she asked afraid of the answer. Soze looked completely startled by her question before laughing uncontrollably, "That's what your worried about? Whether or not they were 'Bad Guys' or not?" he paused to laugh some more, "Yes, I suppose they were all 'Bad Guys' but even if they weren't, I probably still would have killed them all."

She should have been sickened by him, yet she wasn't. She should have airlocked his Irish ass, but she didn't. Instead, she felt intrigued by him. Not romantically intrigued, just intrigued in the way that he was a puzzle that she needed to put all the pieces into. Shepard needed to figure out who Jonathon Soze truly is.

Shepard sipped her coffee some more then realized with a start, that she actually enjoyed Irish coffee. "Not to be rude, but every single crewmember on this ship has a job," Shepard began, "Except for you, what exactly are you good at?" Soze started pacing next to the Mess Hall table before answering, "Well, I'm a good killer, but you have plenty of those; not to mention that there really is no practical use for a killer on a ship, I'm a good mechanic; but you already have Garrus for that, Hmmmmmm, Engineer? Never mind I'm not very good at that,"

He stopped suddenly before answering thoughtfully, "You know, I use to work at a restaurant on Illium. Therefore, I believe that I will help Gardner with his meal preparations. It seems to fit perfectly." Shepard agreed with him before making her way to the elevator. Right as she was about to turn the corner Soze spoke, "And by the way Commander, you look amazing in that robe." She flushed a deep red all the while cursing him under her breath, even though he had heard what she said and was currently laughing his ass off.

She was still cursing him as she made it back to her cabin. As she stepped back into her darkened room that was glowing blue due to the fish tank she had in the wall she could tell she wasn't alone in there. Shepard figured that she could either attack the other entity, or she could surprise it. Shepard casually walked to her terminal, pausing to look at the model ships that she had hanging up. Also, she took her hamster that she had named Rufus out of his small cage, and proceeded to pet the little animal. Shepard opened up her terminal and noted that she had received a new message from Thane.

_To: Jane Alice Shepard_

_From: Thane Krios_

_Subject: None_

_Dear Siha,_

_Turn around._

_Love,_

_Thane_

Shepard jumped up and spun around into a fighter's position while Thane chuckled. "Siha, If I was truly behind you, why in the name of Amonkira would I warn you?" Shepard sighed in mock annoyance before stepping up onto the bed where the Drell was. "Because you love me," was her sarcastic response. Thane laughed airily, "Yes siha, I do. Where were you if I may ask?" Shepard snuggled closer to him before telling him half way asleep, "Oh just talking with Soze, he's not that bad actually," Shepard noticed that for no apparent reason Thane had stiffened when he heard who she was talking with.

"Umm, Thane? What's wrong?" she asked, confused and worried. Thane just sort of pushed her off of him and sat her up, staring into her eyes angrily. "Of all the people to talk to this late you had to talk to him?" He asked, extremely pissed off, "What is the matter with you? He is not a good man!" Shepard stared at him incredulously before shouting back, "How the hell would you even know that? I just got done talking to him and he seems pretty goddamn nice!"

Thane stopped and sighed, "Perhaps I should have started at the beginning." he began, "This isn't the first time I met with this Jon Soze person before," he paused as Shepard gasped, "Yes, we did a job together, years ago."

**Year: 2178**

**Location: Citadel**

**Major Players: Turian crime lord turned author Keltic,**

**Drell assassin Thane Krios,**

**Human Interrogator Jonathon K. Soze "The Dragon"**

Thane walked over to the table where the meeting was already taking place and sat down in the chair next to his contractor. The Turian was slapped him on his shoulder and laughed, "Oh here he is, Thane; I'd like you to meet a close associate of mine; Johnny Soze. Soze and Krios stared at each other levelly and shook hands quickly as you would a poisonous snake before Thane asked the Turian; "Why am I here? I'm an assassin, hes an interrogator." Keltic laughed before answering, "Well Thane, simply put; he is going to help you with a job."

**SPECIAL THANKS GOES TO MOSKGROROV FOR THE USE OF KELTIC. PLEASE REVIEW :D**


	6. Chapter 6

**I'm sorry it has taken so long to update, Police Training, Job interviews and school to top it all off. I need reviews people. Anyway read this, love it, leave it, review it okay? As always thanks HBHound (for constantly reviewing and for generally having hilarious stories: READ RAGS TO RICHES :DDDDD and Moskgrorov: we missed ya buddy, keep doing your writing thing! Anyway enjoy this bit of my brain okay? PS It is about to take an extremely DARK turn. Enjoy:D**

_**How lucky can one guy be?**_ _**I kissed her and she kissed me**_ _**Like the fella once said**_ _**"Ain't that a kick in the head?"**_ _**My head keeps spinnin'**_ _**I go to sleep and keep grinnin'**_ _**If this is just the beginnin'**_ _**My life is gonna be beautiful**_ **Ain't That A Kick In The Head by Dean Martin**

**Chapter six:**

**Old School **

_Krios regarded the human thoughtfully, then asked Soze, "Do you know of the target?" Soze shook his head before answering the Drell, "No, but I do know of one of his contacts; a Turian named Kyurl Shukonis. Once we have a "Talk" with him, I'm quite sure we can work from there." Thane nodded in agreement to this plan, he felt that it was an acceptable one. Soze stood up and walked away, and Thane also stood up, but walked the other direction. The meeting was set-up, Zakera Ward, two days, at 2200._

**Day: Two Days later**

**Time: 2130 Hours**

_Thane waited in the shadows sitting at a table, praying his usual prayer. He felt the instinct to look up and following it he saw Soze dressed in a leather jacket, a black knit turtleneck sweater and black cargo pants. Thane saw him reach into his pocket, pull out a cigarette and a lighter and took a puff. Thane waited until Soze was sitting down before speaking, "What weapons did you bring?" Soze grinned manically before pulling out a black bag. Although it was not actually a bag, Thane realized, It's actually a professional knife holder for multiple knives. Thane nodded and they both took the elevator down to the apartment district._

_ They walked for about 20 minutes before arriving at an unremarkable apartment. It was the standard gray; no grass, nothing particularly different about it. They stepped into the house, where they then noticed that it looked like a human museum of older human technology. They took positions at the walls; Thane holding a pistol and Soze holding a garrote wire. They heard movement and they waited for a few minutes until Shukonis walked right past them._

_ Soze wrapped the wire around the Turian's neck and Thane put the pistol into his mandibles. Soze dragged the screaming Turian (Thane wasn't worried, as he had enabled the soundproofing) and tied him into a chair. Thane started asking questions first, "Where is Tevos?" The Turian looked at him hatefully before yelling, "Fuck You!" Soze just laughed and walked over to a record player that was sitting in Shukonis' house. _

_ Soze turned around and inquired to the Turian, "You don't mind if I-" "Never mind, of course you don't mind if I look through some of your songs." He started flipping through records casually until he reached one he liked, "Ah perfect," he said, "Dean Martin's classic: Ain't that a kick in the head." Soze put the record into the player and moved the needle to the beginning of the track and let go. After a few seconds the music of the former Rat Pack star was playing, and Soze was whistling along with it. _

_ The Turian looked at Soze with confusion until suddenly the humans fist cracked right onto Shukonis' face. Hard. The Tied-up Turian roared in pain and anger while Soze sung along to the song, "I've Sunshine enough to spread, It's just like the fella said, "And Be Quick...Aiiiiin't that a kick...In the heeeaaaaaaaaaad?" Following every word with a punch or a kick. After the song was over Soze paused, somewhat disappointed. Thane watched in quiet fascination when he played the song again on a loop. Soze sighed and said, "Well, I think we've wasted enough time, Don't you believe so Sere Krios?" Thane nodded and Soze pulled out the wickedest blade Thane had ever seen and walked over to the Tied-up Shukonis._

_ Fifteen minutes later, and a body so mangled and sliced by blades that it was impossible to verify the body Soze and Krios walked out. Soze dropped a picture of a dragon on the doorstep and they stepped away from the apartment blocks. Soze walked to the Rapid Transit terminal and waited, whistling to himself. Thane walked towards the exit praying that his multi-goddesses would forgive him for his actions that day._

"That is why I do not trust him," Thane said, breaking Shepard out of her trance to the story. Shepard had her mouth open and was startled when it ended. "Now do you understand Siha?" Thane asked, Shepard nodded before replying, "I see your point, but he's not that guy anymore. Don't you believe people can change?" She added that last part because she knew it would affect him the most. Thane sighed, "I guess your right, I'll let him prove himself as a changed man. Now let's go back to bed, we shall deal with everything in the morning." Shepard snuggled back with him and they fell asleep.

The still awake Soze sat down on his cot, knowing full well that he would not sleep that night. He groaned in annoyance and decided to walk around the ship, as he had not had the tour when he arrived. As he stepped off his cot he grabbed a cigarette and his lucky lighter, then lit the cigarette and took a long drag. _Much better_, he thought with a relaxed smile. Soze walked to the cooking station, where he would be spending most of his time and looked over the mediocre cooking appliances. _No_, he mused his brain already setting a plan in motion, _This will just not do_.

Soze pressed a button on his omni-tool and applied the wireless headphones to his ears and went to the mp3 function. He found out that rap music was the best music to use when he wanted to remodel areas, so he selected a song by a new rap group from Omega called E.T.A and started playing it.

As the song went on he continued nodding his head to the beat, "_Straight outta Omega_  
><em>Is a brother that live with his mother<em>, _And doesn't give a shit about the other," _Soze chuckled to himself, If they made another good song like this he would have to send a message to his acting CEO and have him sign them over to his record label, _**Smoking Chambers/Red Hood Records**_. Soze knew he was an odd man, but something about that rap group made him smile.

As this was going on Kasumi was currently locking lips with Jacob Taylor in the Port Observation deck. Jacob had found Kasumi's poem about him and now they were secretly involved, however it appeared that Yeoman Chambers knows about it.

"I'll DESTROY YOU HUMAN," came the Krogan roar. Zaeed shook his head, "No, no, no, no all wrong, your not being intimidating enough, bloody hell. I've seen Volus more terrifying then you, and Hanar with bigger spines." Grunt growled at him before responding, "Fine, let's try it again."

Samara was meditating to try to get to sleep. Every time she closed her eyes all she ever saw was the drell's face. Samara had this ridiculous fascination with the assassin, but she knew that Shepard would try to decimate her into tiny little pieces if she ever acted on her impulses. Still, she felt as though she could defeat Shepard, if it came to that.

Finally, Joker thought happily, he was no longer on shift for the night. "Logging you out, Mr. Moreau," came the somewhat female voice of EDI. "Eh, whatever," came Joker's retort as he walked out of the cockpit and his replacement helmsman took his spot. Joker was extremely tired walking to the elevator, and when he finally made it to the crew's quarters he crashed on his bunk falling asleep before he landed on the bed.

**Morning**

"Well, Tali has gotten her possessions from the Flotilla and will be joining us on the Normandy. She should arrive shortly and as she is one of my closest friends, all of you will treat her with the utmost respect," Shepard said over the intercom. Soze was eating breakfast (that he had made) with a couple of the crew members, and looked at Garrus questioningly. Garrus nodded before saying, "Tali was with us when we went after Saren and Sovereign and never called her a traitor," Garrus chuckled humorlessly, "Unlike that bastard Kaiden." Soze frowned, "Were they two, how would you say, an _Item_?" he asked Garrus. Garrus nodded his head as a response before going back to eat his dextro breakfast. Soze left the crew, he had some business at hand.

Soze headed up back to his quarters with questions swimming in his head; Who is Tali? Why wasn't she on the ship when he arrived? Once a question enters Soze's head It's impossible to get rid of. It becomes a sickness that consumes his every thought, and literally obsesses him. He thirsted for new knowledge, no matter the topic and that is what made him such a great businessman. That is also what has almost gotten him killed since he was a kid. Soze chuckled in remembrance of his childhood.

_"Are ya fuckin' useless, boy?" came the Irish growl of the much older man, "Ya c'n't hit a target to save ya own fuckin' life, let alone someone else's." Jon gritted his teeth, eager to prove his mentor __wrong, "Maybe if ya shut the fuck up for once Shaemus!" Jon growled back and in that same instance shot the can off of the top of a haystack over 600 feet away. Shaemus laughed, "Got some fi'e do ya boyo? Your not as brain dead as I tho't." Jon swelled with pride at this...kind of a compliment. Shaemus never gave compliments, ever, and this backhanded one was the closest thing Jon had ever received from the grizzled old warrior. _

_ Jon hadn't even been his pupil for long, just a few weeks. Already the boy was showing great improvement, Shaemus thought proudly, One day Jon might actually be a soldier. "Okay, ya worthless pieces of shite," Shaemus yelled at the gang, "Tomorrow we complete the raid on the Simon's barn, Sleep up." _

_ Jon climbed into his bunk happily thinking about the progress he had made that day, when a small voice interrupted his thoughts, "Hey Jon, I was wonderin' 'ow was it like, working with Shaemus?" Soze recognized the voice as one of the younger boys named Anton, "Not bad, I suppose if you enjoy being yelled at," he answered. _

Soze snapped back out of his memory realizing he had fallen asleep leaning on the wall. _Damn,_ he mused, _I really do need to not stay up so late._ Soze chuckled to himself while drawing up blueprints to the new kitchen he had planned out the night before. After a few minutes he was still do curious about this Quarian he had heard about to do any real work, and according to an Email by Shepard, this Quarian in question had just arrived.

As he was about to step out of the AI Core, Garrus suddenly showed up sighing, "I suppose you want to go meet Tali, Don't you?" Soze grinned at him as an answer and they both stepped into the elevator. "I'm telling you now Soze, Tali is pretty much my...masked...sister, and possibly the most innocent person in this whole galaxy. If you do anything un-gentlemanlike I will rip off your arm and beat you to death with it, understand?" The Turian grinned at Soze menacingly. Soze just chuckled, not even paying attention to the protective former C-Sec officer.

"Tali!" Shepard walked up to her former teammate and gave her a bone crushing hug, "I'm so glad that you are ready to move into the brand new Normandy," Shepard started smiling, "I've missed you so much!" Tali laughed, "I've missed you too, Shepard! I wish Wrex and Kai-" Tali stopped herself with a wince. Shepard continued smiling unfazed by Tali's faux pas.

At that time Soze and Garrus stepped off the elevator and Garrus pointed to Tali. "That's Tali, our resident Quarian." Soze nodded absentmindedly, analyzing her body language. Soze knew since Quarians are always covered up, it can be difficult to read them, but he had also trained himself to read every species and besides, there's no way that Quarians are harder to read then Elcor (Unless Elcor tell you their emotions.)

"Hmmmm, you appear to be deep in concentration," Garrus said to Soze, "What the hell are you thinking?" Soze stopped nodding and responded, almost to himself, softly, "Innocence radiates off of her, yet at the same time so does sadness...and guilt." he continued, "She's happy to see Shepard, but sorrowful in how she came to be here." Soze's eyes widened and he turned around and walked faster then usually back to the elevator. "Where are you going, Soze?" Garrus called back to him, "Aw hell," he said to himself as Soze left.

"Garrus!" Tali squealed, ecstatic to see him. She hugged the much larger, scary looking, scarred Turian who had treated her like a little sister on the Normandy SR1. Garrus laughed and hugged her back and they began talking about the older days with Shepard, laughing after every story.

Soze was sitting on his bunk, saddened beyond belief. _I can't fucking believe this,_ he thought miserably, _She's been dead for ten years, and she still is kicking my ass_. The AI Core door opened and Shepard entered unexpectedly. "Shepard," Soze said surprised, "What are you doing here?" Shepard leaned against the wall saying, "What's wrong Jon? You look like you've seen a ghost. Is Tali the problem?" Soze stood up denying vehemently, "No its not that, its... nothing Shepard, just some past shit I've had to deal with." Shepard asked him to tell her and he did reluctantly.

"A long time ago, in Ireland, I was running with a ragtag group of kids. We were somewhat a gang, organized and willing to die for each other. We preferred the term "Family." Whatever you want to call us, we were all together. Anyway, there was one girl named Mariana who was my mentor's daughter, my mentor was a hard-drinking man named Shaemus. I fell in love with Mariana much to the surprise and pride of Shaemus, who thought I was the perfect man for his baby girl. When I was sixteen, she got pregnant with our child and I had enough money at that point to buy us a modest flat in the city. Everything was going great," Soze sighed bitterly, "One of the ways I made some money was from gambling, I was incredible at it. Well, turns out that that had made the Lehane (Irish mob family) boss extremely angered." Soze stopped talking for a second before muttering, "I was a fool."

"They entered my gang's hideout and slaughtered every single boy and girl inside there. There were twenty-seven children in there in all. Not counting the ten veterans or the mothers of some of the kids. Forty-six deaths in all, all because of me." Soze buried his head in his hands, "Shaemus had the misfortune of showing up too and they killed him. With his last breath he told me to avenge our family." Soze stood up again, "I rushed back home and when I opened my door." Shepard noticed the tears running down Soze's face, "They had a gun pressed to her temple, and another at her stomach," Shepard started feeling sick, "I pleaded and begged them to kill me and not her, and the bastards laughed before pulling the trigger." Shepard felt extremely nauseated before asking hesitantly, "What happened to those men?" Soze laughed darkly, "I killed all of them, decapitated a few, fillet a couple here and there, fed at least one to a neighborhood dog. The last one was my favorite one though, George Lehane the big bad mob boss."

Soze smiled again grimly, "I chopped him up into little bite sized pieces all the while he's screaming himself hoarse, I don't suppose it helped him. I hung up his disemboweled body from the city hall and called it a job well done." Shepard had a hard life but that story sure as hell won. "Why didn't you go to the police?" Soze laughed darkly again, "I did, but I got a beating because of it. Turns out most of the cops were in the pocket of dear old George. It took me a year to track them all down. Now there is none of them left."

"Ah," Shepard did not know what to say in this situation but she still had one question, "Why did you just get reminded about this now?" Soze walked over to the door locked it and soundproofed it before answering, "Looking at Tali, and the innocence pouring from her, it was so like the one Mariana radiated that it had gotten to me. Don't worry Shepard this won't be a problem from now on." Shepard nodded numbly and left the AI Core with a newfound fear of the man named Jonathon K. Soze.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey guys here with another installment of "SOOOZZEEEEE'S INNNCCCCCC" I'll try to make sure the updates are more frequent then they have been. This chapter came to me in an odd sort of way (Inspired by Noraque's story "I love you, But can I trust you?") It's not nearly the same type of antagonist but was somewhat inspired by that story. Enjoy.**

** Chapter Seven**

**F.E.A.R**

_**My eyes open but I don't remember much  
>I try to focus but the light is bright as fuck<br>I go to sit up but I'm strapped and stuck  
>Struck panic can't say nothin<br>Like my jaw is wired shut  
>Now how the fuck I got to where I<br>am is still a mystery  
>My memories not assisting me<br>As I lay here in misery  
>Literally hoping some body would<br>give me some kind of time **_

_**am I dead of alive?  
>Is this a dream or a sign?<strong>_

_**-**_**Fear by Boondox feat Blaze and Monoxide**

_A human walking down the sectors of the Omega apartment district is nothing to be suspicious about, and that is exactly why his plan worked so perfectly. Nobody would remember seeing his face, so he did not wear a mask. Plenty of the citizens of Omega wore dark clothing, so he did not feel worried that he would be caught. No fear at all._

_ Fear, just the word made him smile. Not that he had ever felt such an emotion, but he enjoyed other people's fear. A low chuckle emitted from his mouth in anticipation for tonight's hunt. Yes, he considered what he did hunting while others would just call it murder. He found himself insulted by that word because it wasn't just murder, that did not give it enough credit. It took over a month to get all of the information he needed and there was always a chance his victim would fight back._

_ Not that he was worried about his victims actually harming him. He, in all honesty, was extremely arrogant but he had damned well earned the right to be! Who else but him would even dare targeting the Seven Dragons? He remembered the saying that his, for lack of a better word, trainers had told him about the Seven Dragons, "He who fucks with them, Die painfully." He had already gotten to one of them, an asari named Taleah who lived on Illium. Her screams were music to his ears._

_ He was nearing his destination and needed to make sure he was ready, after all "Practice makes Perfect." He checked his two Omni-Blades that he had managed to hijack from a Soze factory (another feat he was proud of.) and continued walking. He made it to the apartment that was his destination and knocked on the door. An older Batarian opened the door wearing dirty pants and an old tank top saying, "What the hell do you want?"_

_ He answered this rudeness with an Omni-Blade stab straight through the Batarian's stomach. The Batarian coughed out blood and inquired harshly, "Your the bastard that got Taleah, Aren't you?" He smiled as a response and told him this, "I have a riddle for you: What is something I do not possess, but is my gift to you?" The Batarian shook his head not knowing the answer. He leaned close to the Batarian's ear before telling him the answer, "Fear," he whispered, "And by the time I'm done here tonight you will know the true meaning of it." _

Back on the Normandy Soze sat up on his cot, sweating and gasping for air. The nightmares that he had were even worse then he remembered. _Fuck Insomnia_, he thought angrily, _If insomnia was a person I would kill him multiple times_. As he was now awake he decided to go onto his terminal and read some "classified" documents. The one he was particularly intrigued by was the Shadow Broker's file on Tali'Zorah vas Neema. He had done some work for the Shadow Broker before and had hacked into his systems, something some had said was impossible.

He frowned at what appeared to be a log to another Quarian from Tali trying to send a condolence letter for a soldier that had died under Tali's leadership. He didn't read what she had downloaded onto her suit because, well that was extremely personal but he became angry at the Email chain between Tali and the Shadow Broker. _If Fist is still alive_, Soze thought grimly, _I should pay him a small visit_. He had no idea where these seemingly random feelings of aggression towards anyone who had harmed Tali came from, but he did not dwell on that.

**Morning**

Shepard stepped out of the elevator into the Mess Hall and was greeted by the amusing sight of Soze wearing a white cooking smock with the phrase, "Kiss me, I'm Irish" written on it and had his dark hair tied back with a look of utter concentration on his face while slicing some food on a cutting board. "Morning, Shepard," he said still not even looking up. Shepard grinned, "Whats cookin'?" she asked. Soze answered surprisingly, "Filet Mignon, fresh peppered eggs and bacon wrapped in a tortilla." Shepard laughed, "Soooo, a really fancy breakfast burrito?"

Soze nodded seriously and handed her one on a plate. She looked at the table and saw that everyone else had one including the asari justicar. She sat down between Thane and Miranda and chewed her burrito thoughtfully as Miranda stated reports. The crew enjoyed having a new chef in the kitchen and Gardner was actually relieved that Soze took over his kitchen spot. Saved him from all the heckling from all of the behind the scenes crewmembers, sure there was Shepard and the ground team, but there were also the ones who made sure the ship was running great when they were out battling geth and collectors.

"Listen up crew," Shepard began, then waited a half second for everyone else to quiet down, "We are heading towards the Citadel for some well needed shore leave. I already sent Joker the coordinates and we should be there in a little under forty-eight hours, soooo get ready for some fun!" The crew cheered happily and Soze smiled to himself, _Now I have time to take care of some business_, he thought.

Stepping into the elevator he found himself alone, and secluded with Tali. _Well...fuck_, he thought to himself. "Sooo, umm, I guess this is the first time we have actually been face to face," Tali said shakily. Soze was confused, he was either deaf and blind or Tali seemed nervous. "Indeed, ma'am," Soze said in his gentlemanly way, "It's truly a pleasure to meet you, Shepard and Garrus have the highest amount of fondness for you." _Well...fuck_, he thought again, why the bloody hell did he sound so formal?

"Ah, yeah, I mean, I guess. I've missed them both very much," Tali started, "We were all very close, as well as Wrex-" "I'm sorry to interrupt, but do you mean Urdnot Wrex?" Soze asked curiously, Tali answered, "Yes, why?" Soze just chuckled to himself before making a daring stab into conversation, "How do you like the new Normandy?" he then mentally cringed at his own question, remembering that Tali HATED Cerberus. Tali just laughed though, "It is a lot to get used to, but I trust Shepard and the crew is nice. Well this is my stop," she said patting his arm. Soze laughed uncomfortably before retorting, "As this is the last stop that the elevator goes to, this is also my stop." Tali giggled embarrassingly, "Oh, well then, anyway, I should probably go," Tali stepped into engineering and Soze was left alone.

_Well...Fuck_, he thought for a third time, _That was fuckin' awkward. _Zaeed had challenged him to an assortment of challenges and Soze had accepted which was why he was there. As he stepped into Zaeed's quarters a knife went whizzing by his head and he caught it as a reflex. "Haha, ya think ya fast, Don't ya?" came the cockney accent of the older mercenary. Soze stared him down before saying, "We can talk or we can drink, your choice." Zaeed's eyebrow raised, _This kid's got some spunk_, he thought.

Twenty four shots in and the both of them were so drunk that neither could understand the other. Soze's drunk Irish accent came through so thick that it was comical and Zaeed's accent was actually worse. Shepard stepped in and immediately spotted the two inebriated accented men and promptly flipped the fuck out (to put it bluntly.) "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU TWO THINK YOUR DOING?" came the scolding screech of the Commander, "WE DO NOT GET WASTED ON THIS SHIP, DO YOU TWO UNDERSTAND?" Unfortunately for the two men in question they made the mistake of laughing.

They would never make that mistake again. Shepard tossed them both into "Sober-Up" pods and made them both take cold showers and drink a lot of coffee. Soze asked for an Irish coffee and got Bioticly thrown down the steps down almost into Jack's "Lair."

A few hours later Soze woke up groaning in pain at the massive hangover he now had. "Serves you right," said the smirking Operative Lawson. Soze just looked at her and tried to say something intimidating but all that came out was, "Oaaaaaawwwwww!" Miranda smirked even more, "My point exactly," before stepping out of the Med-Bay.

He sat up rubbing his temple and the calm, classy voice of the doctor came to him, "Well, Mr. Soze I guess you learned not to mess with the Commander," Soze just laughed painfully, "Not. Even. Close." After saying that he walked out. Behind his back Chakwas just shook her head and sighed at his foolishness.

Sitting down at the Mess Hall table with his hands over his eyes he reached for the sunglasses he had always kept clipped to the collar of his shirt. He loved these sunglasses, mostly because they were one of a kind. The lens and rims changed color based on his other clothing, If he wore a black suit with a white collared shirt the rims would turn white and the lens would turn black. He loved them so much.

Before he could put them on he sensed someone sitting next to him. "You don't look the best," said Tali in a vaguely uncertain voice that he actually found endearing. Soze tried to laugh but it hurt too much to so he just gave a low chuckle before putting on his sunglasses. They both sort of looked at each other, not seeing each others eyes (Soze's sunglasses, Tali's helmet) for a few seconds before Tali said an awkward, "Bye," and went back to work down in Engineering. Soze went back to his quarters and looked at the various items in there. Katana; from a would be assassin in Japan, an old extranet Terminal; a gift from a friend on Noveria (The terminal is unregistered and is more secure then any other,) A couple paper copies of books, he enjoyed strategy so he had a chess set (also a gift from a friend on Noveria) and he looked at a few of his pictures that he had.

He had one of his dad and of his sister before his dad left him. _Christ_, he mused looking at the picture of his sister, _She must already be at least sixteen_! He also had one of Mariana that he looked at every night, with a sigh he tipped it down so he couldn't see her face. _Ding_, Soze frowned, that was the sound of a message reaching his terminal. He read the extranet address of the sender and his frown only deepened. Reading it slowly he realized he would eventually have to talk to Shepard.

Meanwhile, Tali is sitting in engineering working at her station with a lot on her mind. Most of it was about that mysterious man Soze. She wasn't quite sure what to think about him, some part of her hated that he was working with Cerberus, but then she remembered that he worked for Shepard and that he disliked Cerberus. Which put him at a plus with Tali. She felt as though she shouldn't be nervous around him yet couldn't quite manage to not be. Which confused her quite a bit because she wasn't as nervous towards anybody else on the ship!

She had missed Shepard, Garrus, Liara, Wrex and Kaiden so much when the crew disbanded. Luckily for her she had left for the Flotilla months before Shepard's death with the Geth Intelligence that Shepard had procured for her. Tali truly wished that she could have stayed a part of the crew after they defeated Saren and Sovereign, but as an Admiral's daughter there was responsibilities that she could not abandon. And then on Freedom's Progress she had almost been crippled with shock when she saw that Shepard was still alive. She wanted to immediately join Shepard again, but she had doubts if Shepard was still Shepard at that point.

Tali had gotten herself and her team trapped on Haestrom and that blame would always be hers. She had gotten those soldiers killed and she was so certain that she would die as well, but then miraculously Shepard showed up and saved her once again. Tali decided right then that she would join Shepard, and Kal had just made it easier for her to do that. And for that she owed him immensely.

She didn't even notice that Engineer Daniels was trying to get her attention. "Keelah, I'm sorry, what were you saying?" she asked apologetically. Daniels smiled her forgiveness, "It's not really anything major-" she began, but Donnelly finished the sentence for her, "Could you ask the Commander if she is ever going to get those blasted FTL drives?" Daniels shook her head at the Scottish Engineer and Tali said that she would ask Shepard about the FTL drives in question then went back to thinking.

Grunt paced back and forth inside of his room (for lack of a better word) extremely agitated. When Yeoman Chambers walked in as part of her routine check up on the crew he roared and tried to charge at her. Sensing the danger she was in she quickly backed out of the room and decided to talk to Shepard about Grunt's new behavior.

Shepard was sitting at her private terminal in her private quarters frowning as she got three messages in quick succession. The first one was from Jonathon Soze, who asked; while they were at the Citadel, if he could speak to an old contact that needs some help. The second one was from Tali asking about the FTL drives that she hadn't picked up yet, but would when they were to be on Omega next. Lastly, the third was from Kelly advising Shepard to talk to Grunt because he seemed overly aggressive, even for a Krogan.

Shepard fired off a quick message to Soze; telling him to keep it quick but do what ever it was he needed done. To Tali she just ignored it for the time being, and for Kelly she said just five words, "I'll Take Care Of It." She was not looking forward to the conversation with Grunt at all. He was still young, brash and overly confident. It was times like these where Shepard wished Wrex was still on the ship, even with his antisocial behavior he exhibited while on the Normandy SR1. His political beliefs in the Krogan were so simple yet so elegant at the same time.

Instead of the traditionalism most Krogan believed in, Wrex believed that the only way for the Krogan to still be alive was to band together. While a Spectre, Shepard had pushed for the Krogan to be able to join the council and was almost laughed at by the councilors. She still felt bitter over their betrayal towards her such as; firstly, not believing in her, secondly, not believing in her, and thirdly, not believing in her. She felt as if this was some sort of pattern. They don't believe her then what she warns about actually happens and thousands of people die. Fuck politics.

Meanwhile, Jonathon Soze smiled, his hangover already worn off because of his extremely high metabolism. He just looked at one of his pictures and was lost in some not-so-forgotten memories. Soze looked down at the picture of his old friend Michael. Michael Renton was his full name, but mostly everyone called him Iron Mike.

_Fifteen year old Jon; sleeping on the ground of the old barn he lived in happily dozed off into La-La land when something forced him to open his eyes. All he could see was down the barrel of a pistol. He calmed himself down quickly realizing that panicking was not going to help him in the least and looked at the face of the man holding the gun, and smiled. Suddenly, with a kick up and a well timed parry into an uppercut Jon knocked the pistol to the ground and the attacker back. The attacker was about six feet tall, blondish brown hair and green eyes, Michael. Jon knew that it was a test to see if Michael could get the jump on him. Jon vowed to not let that happen. _

_ A fist barely missing Jon's head gave Jon a perfect opportunity to use his newly trained move; the left hook. It knocked back Michael but he already swung a leg up into a roundhouse which when then collided with Jon's head, making him fall down. Michael rushed in eagerly only to be thrown through the missing window, both of them landing on the awning. They continued trading blows for at least ten minutes, neither one admitting defeat, destroying the barn in the process._

_ They both stopped fighting when they heard the sound of a canister hitting the awning right next to their feet. They both stared at it for a second before looking back at each other. Jon and Michael stared at each other for a few seconds before in unison they yelled, "Oh Shit!" and tried to duck for cover when the concussive grenade blew up, sending them both down the awning and off of the nine foot drop into the grass groaning and bruised. _

_ "Well, tha' should teach ye to naugh' fuck a'ound and be breakin' me barn and shit," came the grumbly voice of Shaemus. Jon and Michael looked at each other again before laughing out, "Oh, shit." Then Soze saw who Shaemus was with and immediately stopped laughing. It was Mariana with her beautiful red hair and small amount of freckles under each of her light green eyes. Her perfectly sculpted lips were raised into a smile with her bright white teeth showing. She was the black sheep out of the whole group as she did not drink or smoke and did not whore herself around with the guys. She was innocent as could possibly be. Jon was smitten with her, everyone knew it except for Mariana it seemed. _


	8. Chapter 8

**All right chapter eight right here. HBHOUND: while I can type out words, there will always be indoor sunglasses. Always. LadyRose014: Thank you Dear. :D namtro: thank you for reviewing every chapter :D you are awesome. As you can all see I bumped it up to an M rating (at this point I was kind of crossing the T-M line) I decided to change it just in case. This chapter is extremely short and is more of a humorous interlude then an actual chapter**

**Chapter Eight:**

**Interlude: Medical Scan**

"Why am I here Mordin?" asked Soze mildly annoyed, The Salarian took a breath through his nose before answering, "Have to take Medical Scan. Required by Commander. Rest of the Crew already had theirs." Soze scowled, "Do you realize how busy I am today? I still have to cook lunch for the crew, catch up on my combat training AND get ready for the Citadel!" Mordin just smiled unfazed at his crewmate's anger, "Have already procured Shepard's permission for you to skip training, also Gardner taking over for you." Soze just grimaced, "Fine, lets get this over with."

Soze sat on one of the beds in the Med Bay while Mordin ran the Medical scanner over his body. "Need to take blood sample," Mordin stated. Soze nodded and stuck out his arm looking away. He loathed needles with a fiery passion of a thousand and a half suns. Soze sucked in a breath when he felt the needle break skin and shuddered at the cold metal. Mordin took the needle out after extracting the right amount of blood and put the vial in the scanner.

Mordin hummed to himself, speaking so fast and quiet that Soze could not hear a word he was saying. Suddenly, the Med-Bay door opened and Commander Shepard entered the room. She saw Soze in his boxers sitting on the bed and immediately walked back out, embarrassed. As she was about to step back out Mordin stopped her, "Shepard, may want to see results. Soze, you may leave now." Soze dressed back into his normal black and white suit before leaving.

Shepard walked over to where Mordin was standing and looked over the Salarian's results. "And this means...?" Shepard asked, Mordin finished, "Overall health: excellent, three tattoos, seven permanent scars, minor burn mark; most likely from a fire when he was younger, his copulatory organ well beyond ave-" Shepard raised her hand, stopping him from continuing, "Thank you Mordin, but I do not believe that that last one was relevant, is there anything else?"

Mordin thought for a moment before answering back, "Metabolism appears to be much higher then the average human, also brain scan shows accelerated thought procession, I.Q equals 167 points, also well above average of a human, genetically superior to average twenty-seven year old humans."

Shepard frowned, "I thought he was twenty-four?" Mordin shook his head, "Impossible, body damage, repair and scar markings have been prevalent for at least twenty five years." Shepard asked, "How do you think he gained all these attributes?" "Many ways, obviously genetically engineering is possible, most likely just genetics though. Genius mother by human standards, physical prowess from father."

Shepard was baffled, "You can tell these things?"

Mordin just smiled, "Indeed Commander, time for lunch. Very hungry."


	9. Chapter 9

**Thank you everyone for reviewing, it truly makes writing this story completely worth it. HBHOUND: You know it's bad when you feel like you have to one-up a fictional character :D just kidding. Thank you new reviewers as well as old fans I hope to see more reviews by you guys. Enjoy. As a sidenote I haven't ever gave you my Shepard's stats yet. Paragon/Soldier class with a hint of biotics (Slam ability)/FemShep/Saved the Council/Saved Wrex/ Blonde hair/ Green eyes**

_**Skinhead, deadhead  
>Everybody gone bad<br>Situation aggravation  
>Everybody allegation<br>in the suite, on the news  
>everybody dog-food<br>Bang bang shot dead  
>Everybody's gone bad<strong>_

_**All I wanna say is that  
>They don't really care<br>about us  
>All I wanna say is that<br>They don't really care  
>about us <strong>_

_**-RIP Michael Jackson "They don't care about us"**_

**Chapter 9**

**The Citadel**

Jonathon Soze looked at the artificial Citadel sky and lit another cigarette. The Normandy's crew had just disembarked into the Citadel. Shepard, ever wary, decided to use the vintage "buddy system" method to keep everyone safe. Kelly was with Kasumi and Jacob, Daniels and Donnelly were with Shepard and Thane (Double-Date?), Zaeed decided to keep Grunt on a short leash as well as with the psychopath Jack, Mordin and Samara went supply shopping, the various crewmen (Rolston, Hawthorne, Patel, etc) were under the supervision of Miranda while Gardner, Joker and Dr. Chakwas stayed on the ship.

Which left Soze with Garrus and Tali. Which he had mixed emotions about. He was fine with Garrus, hell he could even say he liked the smartass Turian. It was Tali that he was conflicted about, she reminded him of Mariana way too much. Yet at the same time, was completely different. Soze would not let that keep him from being as friendly as possible to her.

"So what is it you want to do Jon?" came Tali's voice from behind him. Jon contemplating whether or not telling them his personal mission. After a few seconds of uncertain silence he finally answered her. "Actually," he began, "I need a bit of help. I don't want to tell Shepard all of it, but I need to meet a former contact, a Turian crime lord." Garrus looked at him, "I don't know if Shepard would app-" Soze silenced him with a wave of his hand, "It does not matter if she approves, Garrus, All that matters is that I get this situation handled. Are you two willing to help me out with this or not?"

Tali glanced over at Garrus and the Turian nodded, "Okay Jon, we will help you. Please, what is the reason for the secrecy?" Soze took a long drag from his signature cigarette before responding, "It is too difficult to explain at this moment, let's go to the Zakera Ward Cafe, that is where my contact will meet us."

**Jacob and Kasumi**

"So, Kelly," the Japanese thief started, "What is this I hear about a certain yeoman e-chatting with a young drell C-Sec recruit?" Kelly blushed a bit before retorting, "None of a certain hood wearing, ramen eating thief's business." Jacob, trying to stay out of the conversation was confused by this point. They were walking by the different wards and gift shops when this whole conversation got started. Jacob had his arm around the much smaller hooded woman and had been thinking of getting her a couple real books. All those plans were dashed when Kasumi told him that they were going to visit some guy named Kolyat.

**Soze**

As they walked to the Zakera Ward Cafe Garrus looked around at his old home, his old sectors as a C-Sec officer. They made it to the Cafe and Garrus sat down at one table. "Tali," Soze said quietly, "Go sit with Garrus, that way if this is a trap they won't see you two coming." Tali nodded in affirmation and Garrus ordered Tali and him some Dextro-DNA food while Soze drank some coffee. They sat there for a few minutes until without any warning, the other Turian patrons stiffened. Soze turned to the source of the tension and gave a wild smile.

**Kolyat**

He didn't completely forgive his father, he doubted that he ever could. That is, until his father sent him a message. Now he was sincerely thinking about hugging Thane, the human female that Thane had given Kolyat's extranet address to was insanely beautiful for a human. Kolyat wasn't one to be nervous, in fact he was pretty overly confident for the most part. But Arashu be damned if he wasn't anxious to meet this Kelly Chambers.

**Soze**

"Keltic!" he exclaimed, "Been too long, much too long," This Turian was unique in the way that he did not have the normal colors of clan markings. He had bright neon green markings on his face and was very tall. Taller then most Turians in fact, he also was wearing very expensive formal clothing, odd for a person in his line of work. He would call his work "Orderly Destruction" and Soze had to agree with him. Keltic caused a lot of trouble for a lot of important people at one point; but now, Keltic was still alive and they weren't. Thanks in no little part to the human who currently had a cigarette in his hand and sunglasses on his face.

**Shepard**

Thane looked at Shepard questioningly, "We have reservations to an establishment called "The Positive Balance?" he asked confused, Shepard smiled at him, "Yeah I received some reservations through the mail and since it's right here, we may as well go to it." They had been walking around the Citadel for a few hours and were starting to get tired of it. Thane thought about this for a few moments before smiling at Shepard, "Okay Siha, let's go."

**Soze**

"Jonathon Soze, my old friend, media reports said you were dead. Guess they exaggerated." Keltic quipped, his mandibles twitching in the Turian version of a smile. Soze just grinned sheepishly, "I guess you could say that, How's the wiseguy business? Eh?" Keltic grin became bigger, "Never better Jon, never better. These days, everyone needs some protection, or money, or a place to go to. I recently bought a restaurant here on the Citadel that I really think you'd enjoy, It's called; The Positive Balance," Keltic offered. Soze shook his head chuckling, "Sorry oh mandibled one, very busy these days, I might check it out in a couple hours," The Turian laughed, "Let me guess, hmmmm, impossible cause, probably going to die in the attempt, and nobody is allowed to know?" Soze pondered this with a grin before Keltic continued, "Yep, sounds like you."

**Zaeed**

Zaeed grumbled out loud about having to "babysit" the young Krogan and Jack. To himself though, he had to admit he enjoyed having some company who understood and agreed with his opinions. God knows Shepard didn't, Hell, she had punched him in the face when he caused that fire on Zorya. He would never ever admit this, but it _fucking _hurt! Who knew such a short woman could knock him on his ass without even trying? "Where the bloody hell are we going?" Zaeed asked impatiently. Grunt, true to his name, grunted, "Battlemaster Shepard sent me a message to meet them at some eating place named The Positive Balance."

**Soze**

They talked for a few minutes longer before Soze introduced Keltic to Garrus and Tali, "Keltic, this is Tali'Zorah vas Neema and former officer Garrus Vakarian," both of them nodded from the other cafe table as a greeting. Keltic nodded back before turning back to Soze, "Well I suppose you are super busy, so let me tell you why I called you here, Soze," he began, "They are targeting us." Jon looked puzzled at this as Keltic continued to talk, "They killed Taleah a few weeks ago, nothing suspicious. But just two nights ago the individual also took the life of Frerk." Soze's eyebrows lifted in mild surprise before asking why this was important, "Because Soze, he left this."

Soze glanced down at the drawing Keltic brought up on his omni-tool and his whole body seemed to clench in anger, "And, he is possibly the sickest bastard that I have ever met." Jon glanced back up at the green-marked Turian and shook his hand. "I'll take care of it," Soze said, before he could leave Keltic stopped him and whispered, "Taleah and Frerk, they were good people. Make sure whoever did this is in the ground before they get to the rest of us."

**Jon's first time meeting with Keltic, Omega, Roughly nine years and three months ago**

_The day Jon became Jonathon Soze. Jon felt no emotion, just coldness. His love was dead, his fellow gang members were massacred, Shaemus was dead and he was banned from Earth. His only chance was to strike a claim in Omega, the sleaziest, dirtiest planet he'd ever seen. Once getting off of the transport ship that he had snuck aboard he had been immediately captured by a Batarian. The __eighteen year old human was brought to the up and comer queen of Omega, an asari named Aria T'Loak. She was attractive even by asari standards, with blue facial markings and with an aura of power. She had one rule which was possibly the simplest rule Jon had ever heard, "Don't Fuck With Aria," she had said. _

_ Jon had just glared at her coldly without saying a word, something about this human boy put Aria on edge. Those cool blue eyes that he possessed looked like they could see into her soul. She did not want to even admit it to herself, but she feared this young man. Aria had been extremely relieved when her associate Keltic had agreed to take Jon under his leadership. The green painted Turian was a formidable criminal and he and Aria both agreed that it was in their best interests to work together and not fight one another. Soon, other up and coming...frowned upon business leaders joined their alliance, thus the Se7en Dragons were born. _

_ The original Se7en dragons actually had thirteen people in it. Every member had a second in command, except for Keltic. He could not find anyone who he had approved of to be his XO. The original seven were: two Turians; Keltic and possibly the only female Turian on Omega Eyolrian, Two Asari; Aria and Taleah, two Batarians; Frerk and Izlak, and a Salarian; Umon. _

_ Keltic stared at the young human with his arms crossed. The kid didn't particularly impress Keltic at first until he looked into his eyes. Those eyes were unyielding, they held no fear, no emotion, no compassion; they were only cold. He had yet to meet any human (or any other member of any species) who could be that calm while Aria threatened them. And if Keltic was not completely mistaken, Aria seemed to be uneasy with that human so close to her. Interesting, he thought to himself. "Is there anything you want?" Keltic asked. Jon answered harshly, "A Fuckin' Cigarette."_

**Present day, Citadel, Kelly Chambers**

"YOU DID WHAT?" Kelly screeched at her companions, angry beyond belief. Kasumi just grinned at the pissed off redhead while Jacob shuffled his feet, not having any idea what he could do in this situation. "Relax," said the thief soothingly, "All we did was get you and Kolyat reservations at a restaurant, besides, we wanted to go too. So it'll be a double date." Kasumi grinned triumphantly, her logic and reasoning infallible. Kelly just glared at her before making a strange angry noise. Jacob laughed, "Did you just growl?" Kelly continued eying the two hatefully. Kasumi sighed mockingly, "If you keep arguing we will be laaaate," she had said the last word in a sing-song voice. Chambers grimaced for show, but was actually really excited for the "date" with Kolyat. "Sooo, where are we going to?" she asked nonchalantly, Kasumi laughed knowing full well that she had won. "It's a very beautiful place called the Positive Balance."

**All: The Positive Balance**

Jon, Tali and Garrus walked into the restaurant and noticed that the rest of the Normandy crew was also sitting in there. Jack looked confused and angry, and Soze could tell she was using expletives repeatedly. Soze would find this amusing usually but since he was equally confused he had no room to talk. The rest of the crew looked around bemusedly at their surroundings. The Positive Balance had an aura of calm in it, but Soze knew that it had to have been an illusion of peace. "All right, What the fuck is going on?" came the demanding voice of Jack.

From behind them they heard a bunch of clicks and a male voice saying, "Freeze, your surrounded. Put your hands behind your head and interlock your fingers." The crew turned in unison towards the location of the voice and several groans were let out. They were indeed surrounded. The building was six stories high and there were Eclipse Mercs every single place that you looked with guns aimed in their direction. Soze met Shepard's eyes, and she nodded.

**Can Shepard's crew survive this ambush? Did Keltic set them up? Did Kolyat make it to the Positive Balance? Find out next time at the same Soze time on the same Soze channel. Okay, this was possibly the most difficult goddamn chapter I have ever done in my whole life. So much shit is going on that it's almost impossible to keep up with it all. Read, Review, Favorite**


	10. Chapter 10

**Blah Blah Blah read the story :D If you don't review, I'll be at yo house with a baseball bat and a kerosene lamp. Just warning :) P.S recommend reading all of my stories at ½ justification. It's how I write it and how it should be read. (Makes it a shitload easier)**

**Chapter Ten:**

**Knockin' On Heaven's Door**

**Would someone take these guns away from here  
>Take these guns from the street, Lord<br>I can't shoot my brothers anymore  
>I seen a thug cry<br>I feel a dark cloud coming over me  
>Over me<br>It feels like  
>It feels like I'm knockin on the heaven's door<br>So sing along street children **

**-Wyclef Jean: Knockin' On Heaven's Door**

**Interior: Positive Balance**

Time seemed to go in slow motion for the crew as they immediately dove for cover, reaching for their guns. Shepard dove behind the counter of the east side bar along with Thane and Jacob, firing from the hip as she did so. The west side held Zaeed, Grunt, Mordin and Jack currently combining biotics, bullets and various tech attacks on the upper level mercs. The Normandy crew members who aren't a part of Shepard's ground team were ducked behind the middle bar while Garrus and the two biotics Miranda Samara defended them. Soze flipped over a table one-handedly while firing his pistol with the other hand. Out of the corner of her eye Shepard noticed that Soze grabbed Tali and threw her over the table before getting to cover himself, getting himself shot in the process.

Shepard continued firing but she arched her eyebrow at this startling observation. Unfortunately, a bastard merc shot her in the shoulder, taking out her shield. She ducked behind cover until her shields could recharge and continued her onslaught with her assault rifle. Next to her, Thane was scoping targets with ease, muttering prayers as he did so. He was truly an artist in his element, flowing like water, each shot getting a confirmed kill. Jacob was using his biotics to pull and throw mercs off of the platforms, working surprisingly well.

The battle continued for about five minutes, which when you are in fight mode is just about an eternity. Over at the middle bar Garrus was having difficulty in staying upright and not passing out due to exhaustion, the constant ducking and dodging would have exerted even the most experienced marines. Samara kept throwing biotic shields around the Normandy crew, and Miranda covered Samara.

Zaeed's group was having the time of their lives. While everyone else saw this as intense and intimidating, Zaeed just considered it. He had no qualms about shooting mercs, and he was not intimidated by numbers. Thirteen talented fighters could easily take down an army of six hundred. That is, if the circumstances were right. In this scenario, with barely any cover and being surrounded by all sides, it wasn't what he would consider exactly ideal. Fuck it.

Every time Tali tried to get up to fire on the mercs Soze kept her down with one arm. Tali was extremely frustrated at his apparent ignorance towards her fighting skills and tried to struggle free. Tali snarled at him in annoyance and he just shook his head. "Let me up!" She yelled at him, Soze kept firing, ignoring her yelling. She pushed him enough to were she could stand up and started sending Chiktikka vas Paus to attack some of the lower level mercs.

As the two ducked behind cover to reload Tali asked angrily, "What is your problem Jon?" Soze glanced over at her with an almost psychotic expression on his face before opening his mouth to speak, "I am not going to lose yo-" An explosion knocked the words from his mouth. All they felt was the building shaking and all they saw was dozens of mercs falling. Then, darkness filled all of the crew's vision.

Shepard stood up groggily, her head pounding and her body completely bruised. When she looked around her surroundings she immediately started panicking. "Thane?" she called out, and the assassin made his appearance behind her, "Here Siha." She nodded, Then she looked around again and she could see all of her crew getting out of various broken piles of rubble.

"What the fuck just happened?" Jack yelled questioningly, "First we get attacked by piece of shit fuckin' mercs, then they blow the fuck up?" Shepard sighed painfully, "I don't know Jack, I just don't know." Tali glanced around at the group, "Has anybody seen Jon?"

Shepard looked around. Soze was nowhere to be found. "Where is he?" Shepard asked loudly, "Where the hell is he?" Thane walked over to a seemingly random spot in the rubble and picked up something shiny from it. Then he walked back over to Shepard and dropped the object into her hand. She dropped her eyes to her hands and sighed, closing her eyes. The broken sunglasses falling to the ground seemingly in slow motion.

The crew's emotions ranged from surprised, to shock (and in Grunt's case: pure indifference.) Zaeed shook his head, "Bloody hell, that was unexpected, figured it would take more than a goddamn explosion to put down that Irish dog." Several of the crewmembers nodded in agreement to this. Tali was glad for once that she had a mask blocking the view of her face. She was shocked beyond anyone else in the group. _Oh Keelah_, she thought sadly, _He died trying to protect me_. That fact made her feel so guilty about her yelling at him earlier.

The seemingly endless bodies of Mercs scattered all over the floor attracted Shepard's attention, the Eclipse mercenaries were decimated but then Shepard saw one of the helmeted bodies stirring. "Grunt," she commanded, "Grab him, I have a few questions for our friend." Grunt complied to his Battlemaster's wishes and they sat the merc leaning against a bar counter. "Hey buddy," she asked in a fake nice voice, shaking him awake, "We got a few questions for ya."

The man stirred some more, groaning as he unlatched the helmet he was wearing. As he took it off Shepard made a few observations: the man was probably Slavic due to his facial appearance, he was about forty, and he still looked tough. The man glared at her warily, "What might those questions be, ma'am?" Shepard almost laughed at his politeness, so odd in the situation that he was in and the thick Slavic accent that he possessed.

"Well firstly, gotta name?" she asked. The man nodded carefully, "Name's Mikhail Rusakov." "All right, since your being an okay prisoner let's try to figure out why the hell you were sent to kill me. Hmmm?" Mikhail bared his teeth at her, "Just a job. A very high paying job from some big shot Turian with this odd green face paint as far as I remember."

Garrus and Tali both stiffened when they heard that. Shepard noticed this and turned to them, "What guys?" she asked, confused to their reaction. "Shepard," Tali said, "That matches the description of Soze's contact." Garrus nodded in affirmation grimly. Shepard turned towards the Merc with her eyes blazing, "Tell me where this Turian is," She grabbed Mikhail by his collar and put her face close to his, "Now."

C-Sec arrived and took Shepard and her crew into custody. For about fifteen minutes. "I'm sorry for the wait Commander," said Bailey with a nervous expression on his face. He knew Shepard hated people, and things, that wasted her time. And those things tend to blow up. And he did not want to blow up. Using deductive reasoning, it was wisest not to mess with the nice, friendly lady Spectre.

"Now, we find that damn Turian," Shepard said to her remaining ground team. She had already sent Samara, Miranda and Mordin back to the ship with the crew and had sent Jacob, Kasumi and Garrus to look for more supplies. Shepard then split the group into two squads: Squad A, led by Shepard consisted of: Thane and Tali, While Squad B was led by Zaeed and consisted of Jack and Grunt. Squad B would "Persuade" some local business owners to give them any information possible.

Tali was trapped in her own little world, feeling outrageously guilty for what happened to Soze. She was unaware of, and didn't particularly care what was being said, until she heard a voice from one of the numerous news screens on the Citadel. "Welcome to Citadel news, I'm Emily Wong. With me today is the reclusive billionaire Jonathon Soze." Tali looked up at the screen in shock but just as quickly was disappointed. This was an interview a couple of weeks ago.

"In some of your written statements you claimed that human centric organizations were evil," Emily Wong asked, Soze put up his hand to silence her before correcting with a charming smile, "With all due respect Ms. Wong, that is incorrect. My words were: human centric organizations were prone to go to extreme, even evil measures to get what they want. That is not stating humans are evil, nor any other race. Every race is a mixture of good and evil; dark and light; etc. etc. Even the Rachni-" Emily looked thunderstruck that he would even mention them, "Were in essence: Good."

Emily looked to be at a loss for words before gathering herself up again, "So Mr. Soze what do you think of Cerberus?" Soze raised an eyebrow at her and answered, "The actions of The Illusive Man are... inadvisable to say the least. But without a company always pushing ahead, doing things that us with higher moral grounds refuse to do we would never gain progress. Do not misunderstand my words, I do not mean I agree with Cerberus actions, but without them where would we be? Shepard would still be missing, scientists would not be as close to a cure for the genophage as we are at this moment and the Council would be able to cover up everything in the universe!"

"So what you are saying is that, while Cerberus actions are, at best 'shady' that they are necessary for all of us to adapt?" Emily inquired, at this point extremely curious. Soze flashed her one of the most charismatic smiles Wong had ever seen and replied, "Yes."


End file.
